Big pharma has too much sway over Canada’s drug pricing, ex-review board members say

Matthew Herder, who quit the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board in February, blasted drug companies for “playing fast and loose with the facts” about the Trudeau government’s long-promised drug pricing reforms.Minister of Health Jean-Yves Duclos rises during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Thursday, April 20, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang

Two officials who resigned from the agency that regulates patented drug prices say the pharmaceutical industry has too much power over drug policy in Canada, and this influence has derailed the Liberals’ promises to lower medication costs for Canadians. At a Commons health committee meeting Tuesday, Dalhousie University health law expert Matthew Herder, who quit the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board in February, blasted drug companies for “playing fast and loose with the facts” about the Trudeau government’s long-promised drug pricing reforms.

Using powerful lobby firms, drug companies claim lowering drug prices could negatively affect medication supply and the availability of life-saving therapies for patients in Canada, even though evidence does not support this, Herder said.

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